Golf in South Yarmouth

The Cape Cod Country Club has been in operation under various names since 1928; today, it continues to offer challenging greens and formidable fairways to all levels of golfers. During their 18 holes of golf (up to a $57 value on summer weekends and holidays), iron-wielders will swing and slice their way down sprawling slopes and beguiling bends as they quest toward Horton Smith–esque levels of links luster. Golfers can get a dogleg up on the competition, including the ghosts of past putters whose spirits will not be at ease until they conquer the tricky eighth green, with the club's course strategy or try to outdrive their drive in an electric-golf-cart rental, included in this deal (a $17 value).

Pembroke Country Club’s green, foliage-packed 6,532-yard course is known for its well-maintained landscaping, its challenging par 5 holes, and its sensual Jacuzzi water hazards. After warming up on the straight-shot first hole, you might find yourself sucker-punched by the well-bunkered third’s undulating green, leftward water hazard, and punishing par 3. If you thrive on challenge, attempt to go where eagles dare with the sharply dog-legged 561-yard 13th hole or the pond-sloping greens on the 11th. Navigating the extensive grounds in the included golf cart will keep fatigue to a minimum. To improve their odds of overcoming the course’s steepest obstacles, perfectionists can hone their wrist action at the practice area. Stock up on a last-minute package of golf tees at Pembroke's pro shop, as well as a replica of the golf clubs that Jimi Hendrix rebelliously set on fire at the Monterey Country Club.

Golfers prepare swings for their next pin-hunting expedition year-round at Fore Seasons Learning Center’s indoor and outdoor golf facilities. Whirring orbs race across the New England sky above the center’s 76-stall outdoor driving range, which features both natural grass and turf hitting mats as well as 18 covered and heated stalls, where golf devotees are safe from the elements of chill winters or perilous golf cart-size hail.

Inside the studio, aboutGolf simulators whisk clients away to digitally replicated versions of legendary courses, allowing them to hunt birdies amid the blustery seascape of St. Andrews or evade pixilated porpoises at Pebble Beach. PGA professional Joe Pustizzi roams the center’s grounds, divulging wisdom drawn from more than 30 years of experience and harnessing the simulators and other technological teaching aids to help clubbers on their path to lower scores and higher fives.

Sculpted into 300 acres of glacial depressions that form kettles and kames, Pinehills Golf Club's pair of 18-hole, par 72 championship courses seamlessly incorporate the stunning landscape, earning acclaim from Golf Digest, Golfweek, and Golf Magazine as top public courses in the state. The Rees Jones Course is cleaved through a dramatic glacial imprint left from the Ice Age, showcasing 7,175 yards of wide fairways and very few water hazards for a layout that plays similarly to a links-style course. Hole 15 is a 509-yard par 5 behemoth that demands the toughest carry of the round, about 200 yards. The uphill hole reaches the highest point on the course, which offers views of the surrounding topography, as well as the five bunkers that await errant shots or displaced sunbathers on their way to the green.

The Nicklaus Course was built one year later and presents a serpentine layout of dramatic elevation changes and small, slick greens. Undulated fairways are characteristic of this young course as it winds through dense clusters of coniferous and deciduous tree lines that burst with color in autumn. The course places a premium on precise approach shots rather than gunpowder-filled golf balls in order to avoid the gauntlet of bunkers on nearly every hole. The course culminates at the 18th hole, a 476-yard par 4, as well as a cerulean pond that golfers must carry in order to reach the small, contoured green in regulation.

Pinehills' practice facilities and clubhouse are what set the club apart from other public and private courses. Complete with five large putting greens, a 60-stall driving range, and three chipping greens with bunkers, the practice area is an ideal host for Pinehills Golf Academy. Lessons and clinics pair apprentice golfers with expert PGA instructors, who hone swings with the help of V1 digital swing-analysis technology. After a day on the course or at the range, the East Bay Grille quiets rumbling stomachs with clam chowder, burgers, and steaks.

Jones Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course

• Length of 7,175 yards from the farthest set of tees

• Course rating of 73.8 from the farthest set of tees

• Slope rating of 135 from the farthest set of tees

• Four sets of tee boxes

• See the scorecard

Nicklaus Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course

• Length of 7,243 yards from the farthest set of tees

• Course rating of 74.3 from the farthest set of tees

• Slope rating of 135 from the farthest set of tees

• Four sets of tee boxes

• See the scorecard

A Mass Tour Card grants golfers one round of golf at each of six Massachusetts courses. Golfers must pay the cart fee at each course, after which they can steer their steed over the upper Cape Cod charm of The Brookside Club's course or park their cart in the rustic covered bridge at Maplegate Country Club. Quail Ridge Country Club's course takes golfers through scenic conservation land and stone relics of its previous life as a farm.

The nine-hole course at Lombardi's Hillside Country Club challenges clubbers with water hazards on six holes, whereas Bradford Country Club's difficult, par 70 layout tests putting strokes with smooth bentgrass greens. The sixth course, Norwood Country Club, invites players to smash shots and stare down flagsticks across 6,009 yards of relatively flat terrain with medium-sized greens.